JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – New legislation was filed on Thursday to speed up the process of removing confederate monuments in Jacksonville.
This comes after the council decided to let a monument, called Tribute to the Women of the Confederacy in Springfield Park, remain in place but covered up last year. But now, it’s being allowed to be displayed as it was when it was first revealed in 1916.
Matthew Carlucci filed the legislation “concerning statuary and monuments glorifying the Confederacy and removal of such items from public property and public park spaces.”
“I am trying to kick the conversation off because July will be upon us before you know it and this bill could be voted up or down before then,” Carlucci said. “But if you’re going to have a community conversation, we need to develop a roadmap on how we are going to make that happen.”
Related: Future of Confederate monuments a top priority for Jacksonville City Council in 2022
Carlucci went on to request that the Mayor, City Administration, and City Council produce and present a revised plan along with community conversation by July 26, 2022 -- and to cap removal costs at $500,000.
Some people News4JAX spoke with on Friday. “They should keep it as a part of history,” Erica Bird said.
James Peterson told us, “It should come down. That was back in the day, it’s history now. Time to move on.”
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